Friday, April 15, 2011

abstract adventure

four posts in one week? i must be insane. this is because i took connie's 21 secrets abstract adventures workshop yesterday and had the urge to paint something huge right then with her fearless painting process; it could wait no longer. the storms were coming and the winds were feisty so i knew there wasn't much time. i rushed to fetch the kids and didn't even stop to look at a huge blowup sumo wrestler doll that was straddling two sides of 8th street downtown, much as i wanted to know what that was all about. we did not have time to get big watercolor pads, so i chopped up grocery bags, pieced them together quilt-style with masking tape into one huge sheet, and then, since we didn't have an easel that big, i taped the sucker to our deck, for otherwise it would have sailed away. i had a bunch of liquitex at hand so we grabbed some brushes and outdoors we went.

now kids are already fearless in wielding a paintbrush, and i had two of them working either end of this, so i had to split myself in two for this project -- one half to let loose on the paper, and the other to stand firm guard to make sure our house and garage did not become embattled in paint. sure enough i lost myself in one corner of the painting for long enough for our white garage door to get a bath in forest green, so i spent a half hour scrubbing it clean, finishing just before the storm arrived. we had the time of their lives painting this, but selfishly i cannot wait to get a few moments to do this project all alone, where i can get lost in my head and follow my intuition without consequence! thank you, connie -- i needed this!

Aimee, I've been so reluctant to pull out the paints with my girls. I've tried really hard to get over my mess-phobia, but paints just send me over the edge. Do these paints wash out of clothes, or do your kids just have "paint clothes"? Seeing this project makes me really think I need to get over myself immediately and give my kids some freedom to do something so wonderful as this.

Just popping in from 21 Secrets... I saw your painting in Connie's workshop and wanted to say how great it is to involve your children. I think they can teach us a lot about enjoying the process of painting and not thinking too hard about it! Emie

I love it--using grocery bags and tape. This will be a good project for when we can spread out on the grass (as far away from the garage we we can go) and get messy and all kinds of freaky on the huge canvas.